Shock Shop

3/5 stars

This book features two stories. Although I preferred the first story, both confused me. The two stories are vastly different, not only in terms of art style but also in terms of storytelling.

The first story is more stereotypical, in which a group of friends is camping in the woods when they are attacked by two unidentified entities. I liked this story because of the monsters, not because of the friend group. The way they evolved throughout the story demonstrated the artist's talent and the amount of effort they put into the smallest details. There did not seem to be much of a plot going on, and it seemed to be more focused on the artistic horror aspect.

The second story was not what I expected. A man moves into a house where there appears to be magic, but it appears to be helpful. We learn more about the characters in this story, including how he shares custody of his children with his ex-wife. It appears that she doesn't like sharing custody, and neither does her current partner. This is the turning point in the story, and the horror antics become more intense. The magic reacts to the man's emotions, specifically his anger. This leads to the deaths of his ex-wife's partner and her parents. At this point, the man discovers who is behind the magic and possibly a way to control it. His wife comes to him for validation and comfort, and he starts to explain the situation to her. They end up attacking these invisible creatures, and it appears that they win. Personally, I felt that this was too easy for it to be true, so I assumed he somehow managed to confirm this. It isn't implicitly said, but I felt that this was confirmed by the ending panel. He is completely surrounded by these creatures and seems to be holding the book that was given to him. To me, this is basically a confirmation, but you draw up your own conclusions. Overall, it was not a bad story, but I did have to read through it a couple times to understand what was going on. I do wish we had more time spent looking into the new dynamics between the magic and the man. 

It's a fun read. This is all due to the fact that I read this during the month of October. Both stories seem to have an open ending. If you have a problem with that, you can go ahead and skip this one.